Max and Georgia

Meet Maxfield.

He goes by Max. Max has been staying at our house for almost four weeks. His mom and dad are in Italy. I can tell that Max misses them.

Meet Georgia.

Georgia is Max's sister (adopted, not biological). She's staying with us too. Please don't say anything to Georgia about her pudgy waistline. She knows.

Georgia and PD have a rivalry going on over almost everything. Max seldom gets involved. If PD has a toy, Georgia must have it. If Georgia has a toy, PD wants it.

I won't even mention PD's jealousy when Max or Georgia get attention from me.

I'll just say that PD has issues.

Big issues.

Every once in a while, Max decides to join in the fray. Good thing I stocked up on stuffed animals at some garage sales.

Used to be Secret Sweet Treats

Last year my daughter found out that there are some little things her dad and I don't share with her.

She was surprised.

Perhaps even shocked..

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But since the cat is out of the bag, I have no qualms about sharing the secret here.

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My husband and I have, over the years, made homemade ice cream sandwich cookies, put them in freezer and not shared them with our kids. We had a few reasons we kept them for ourselves. We used expensive, what I refer to as "much to good for children ice cream", and knew they wouldn't appreciate it; we also knew that if the kids knew about these, they'd be gone in one day; finally, it was something we did as a couple and it was fun to keep it a secret from the kids!

In fact, if I hadn't been caught red-handed with chocolate cookie coffee ice cream sandwich in hand last summer, it would still be our little secret.

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Normally, I use a premium coffee ice cream but I was experimenting, so I used a regular ice cream.

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You could make the cookies from scratch but I love these brownie cookies from the grocery store.

They are super yummy. Obviously, you can use whatever flavor of cookie or ice cream you like.

If you buy a box of ice cream, it's easy to slice the ice cream up after it is a bit soft. This is peanut butter ice cream. Coffee ice cream is my favorite.

I cut out the ice cream with the top of a glass so it would fit nicely on the cookie. If you get ice cream in a pint container, cut open the container and slice it. It will already be in round shapes so you don't need to cut it into rounds.

Top the cookie with the ice cream and top it with another cookie.They taste great right away or if you prefer the cookies frozen, wrap them in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. If you are hiding them from your kids, put the wrapped cookies in a non-see-through plastic container labeled "leftovers"

Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits

A few days after planting my herbs and greens, I walked out to my garden and found this.....

A rabbit had been to my newly planted salad bar and had all he could eat. He ate my parsley and cilantro down to the ground.

I. WAS. NOT. HAPPY.

I sprayed some rabbit deterrent spray around my garden. I've heard that you can make your own rabbit deterrent spray with water, cayenne pepper and dishwashing liquid. I don't think this spray is made with peppers; the bottle says it is all organic. I don't want to know what's in it.

I came home to find that my neighbors had joined me in my quest to rid my garden of rabbits. They put this sign in my garden.

I am happy to report that either the rabbit spray or the Elmer Fudd sign have successfully rid my herbs and greens garden from rabbits.

Unfortunately, the rabbits decided to move to my big vegetable garden and eat all of my peas and beans.... a fence is now in place around that garden.

This garden is looking pretty good now. We've had a couple of great salads. Thanks Elmer.

Merry Mary how does your garden grow?

I'm trying a couple new things this year.

Vegetables and Herbs.

This herb garden is a small planter off my back deck. I'm experimenting with something called "square foot gardening." I made the frame, and yes, I'm aware the pine lumber won't hold up long but I'm not committed to this way of gardening long term until I see how it goes - so the pine works for me. The "soil" in the box is a mixture of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss and I didn't dig up the grass before putting it down, the planter is set on a big piece of cardboard over the grass. The box is sectioned off into 1 foot square areas for planting.

I know this whole operation sounds a little sketchy but I'm giving it a try. I've got herbs in half of the squares and spinach and lettuce in the remainder.

On the other side of the house, I've started a traditional garden. We rented a sod cutter and took the sod up from the garden area. What a amazing machine. It cuts the sod from the ground and all we had to do it pick it up and move it out. And, man, is that stuff HEAVY. Good thing I had my husband and son and their muscles doing much of the hard work here. This is where the vegetables are going.

I'm anxious to see things coming up and growing and then harvesting from my gardens.

I've been daydreaming about a grilled chicken dish that uses fresh basil. I can't wait to go out to my garden and pick some for it. Perhaps I'll throw some zucchini and yellow summer squash from my garden on the grill with the chicken and then slice up some ripe red tomatoes.
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As of tonight, the garden is tilled and planted. I really hope things grow.

Spring Flowers

Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. Song of Solomon 2:12

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Audra Foveo

The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size. ~Gertrude S. Wister

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect. ~Adabella Radici